Tha annual flat repair thread

I got my annual flat this morning. Now that, that's over with.....

Okay, this really should be a poll, but

If you get a flat do you:

1) Call the household SAG wagon.
2) Add some air and home you can limp home.
3) Replace the tube with another, tossing the old one ( I will assume into a proper receptacle).
4) Replace the tube with another, take the old one home to patch.
5) Patch the tube and reinstall

Personally I put myself in category 4, I think 3 out of 3 of my spare tubes have now been patched.....

I used to call for the wife to come get me, but I keep a spare tube and all the necessary items to replace the tube and inflate it. Then I just throw the old tube away.

It is interesting though. Back when I didn't carry a spare tube I got lots of flats. Now that I am prepared for them I rarely get a flat.

Around here though, there is rarely an instance where you can just re-inflate and limp home. If you get a flat here it was probably from a goathead and the air will come out almost as fast as it goes in.

I used to call for the wife to come get me, but I keep a spare tube and all the necessary items to replace the tube and inflate it. Then I just throw the old tube away.

It is interesting though. Back when I didn't carry a spare tube I got lots of flats. Now that I am prepared for them I rarely get a flat.

Around here though, there is rarely an instance where you can just re-inflate and limp home. If you get a flat here it was probably from a goathead and the air will come out almost as fast as it goes in.

Actually todays flat, I couldn't call the wife for a pickup, she was standing with her bike next to me, as I changed the flat....

You need an old fashioned glue in a tube patch, in order for patches to work well. You also need to do it properly, find the hole, scuff up the surface, apply the glue, let the glue get tacky, apply patch. I then apply a weight overnight, use the water test the next day to see if it's holding properly. Let all the air out and roll it up, it gets added to the pile-o-spares. Currently I keep one spare on my wifes bike, one on my bike, and one in the garage. If we are going further, I'll toss the spare in the garage into a pannier.

Yeah I know a tube is only $3 or so, but I can get a box of patches and two glue tubes for $3, which means I can fix 10 punctures for the same amount, a savings of $27.

I jinxed myself by saying I haven't been getting flats. Got one today. Some kind of metal shard that made it through the Gatorskin. It was a beeyotch to pull the shard out. It was really stuck in there.

6. Walk to nearest bus stop and thence to either
a. car
or
b. bike shop.
Option A is followed by a visit to Option B.

That which does not kill me has made a massive tactical blunder.
Too often I would hear men boast of the miles covered that day, rarely of what they had seen. Louis L'Amour
'07 Giant Cypress WSD "Radagast the Beige-and-Black" * '97 (?) Bianchi Premio "Orion" * '09 Trek Allant "The Black Pearl"

I rarely flat but seems that when I do, it happens multiple times. And no, i usually don't forget to find whatever flatted me the first time. I keep a couple of cotton balls in my kit to check for whatever caused the puncture. One ride last winter I flatted twice and my wife flatted once, my flats were on different tires. Totally bad day, even ran out of CO2.

I rarely flat but seems that when I do, it happens multiple times. And no, i usually don't forget to find whatever flatted me the first time. I keep a couple of cotton balls in my kit to check for whatever caused the puncture. One ride last winter I flatted twice and my wife flatted once, my flats were on different tires. Totally bad day, even ran out of CO2.

Have to grab a couple of cotton balls out of the wifes makeup kit.....

1. The first one occurred while riding on vacation in Maine. I changed the tube (took me 45 minutes because it was my first real-world experience) -- then discovered that I was less than 1/4 mile from a bike shop (it was around the corner at the end of the street I was on).

2. The second one was a blow-out and occurred on entering the parking lot where my car was parked (maybe 30 ft from the car). I simply put the bike on the rack and drove to my LBS, which was on the way home.

I'm now riding with a new lady friend who is learning to ride. She is a glass magnet. We've done seven 20+ mile rides together, and she's gotten a flat on each one of them. Depending on how bad the hole is, I either change the tube or patch it so that we can finish the ride. She took a class at the LBS recently and dealt with the last two herself.

I don't keep patched tubes -- I've seen too many people on club rides have patches blow out on them (or at least start leaking). If I patch a tube, I replace it as soon as I can.

The problem with riding with your significant other is that -- if there is a flat -- there's no SAG wagon to call home to.

5. I have to find the leak, so I can make sure there is nothing in the tire to cause a 2nd leak. If I replace the tube, then I seriously need to consider if I want to continue or take the shortest route home.